@F  THE 
UNXYEMITY 
OF 


Good  Hunting 


A    WOUNDED    BULL    ELK 


GOOD  HUNTING 


In  Pursuit  of  Big  Game 
in  the  West 

BY 

THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 


Illustrated 


"Good  hunting  all 
That  keep  the  Jungle  law." 
RUDYARD  KIPLING. 


New  York  and  London 

,  Harper  Sr  Brothers  Publishers 

1907 


Copyright,  1896, 1897, 1907^7  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 


All  rights  reserved. 
Published  February,  1907. 


Contents 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE  WAPITI,  OR  ROUND-HORNED  ELK  .  13 

II.  A  CATTLE-KILLING  BEAR 27 

III.  A  CHRISTMAS  BUCK 41  ' 

IV.  THE  TIMBER-WOLF 

Vfll 

V.  SHOOTING  THE  PRONG-BUCK     ....     67^ 

VI.  A  TAME  WHITE  GOAT 

VII.  RANCHING 95 ] 


Illustrations 


A    WOUNDED    BULL    ELK 

SIX-POINT    ELK-ANTLERS 

FOLLOWING  AN   ELK-TRAIL  IN    WINTER  . 

GREAT  WAS   THE   BULL'S   ASTONISHMENT 

THE    GRIZZLY   AND   A   VICTIM       .... 

"THE  SHAGGY  BEAST  WAS  FOUND  LYING 
DEAD  WITHIN  A  DOZEN  YARDS  OF 
HIS  LAST  VICTIM" 

"'I  DROPPED  ON  ONE  KNEE  AND  FIRED*" 

CANADIAN  WOLVES  AT  AN  INDIAN  GRAVE 

DOGS   IN    PURSUIT   OF   AN    OLD   WOLF.       . 

STALKING   BIG   GAME 

"  '  I  LEAPED  OFF,  AND  HELD  WELL  AHEAD 
OF  THE  REARMOST  AND  LARGEST 
BUCK*" 

A  WOUNDED  ANTELOPE 

FINALLY  THE  GOAT  GOT  USED  TO  THE 

MOTION  OF  THE  CANOE  .... 

COW-BOY  AMUSEMENTS 

TAILING  A  BULL 

"  THERE  IS  A  GREAT  DEAL  OF  EXCITING 

GALLOPING" 

~**** 


The   Wapiti, 
or  Round-horned  Elk 


THE   WAPITI,    OR   ROUND-HORNED    ELK 

0  country  of  the  temperate 
zone  can  begin  to  compare 
with  South  Asia,  and,  above 
all,  tropical  and  subtropical 
Africa,  in  the  number  and 
size  of  those  great  beasts  of  the  chase's 
which  are  known  to  hunters  as  big ' 
game;  but  after  the  Indian  and  Afri- 
can hunting-grounds,  the  best  are  still 
those  of  North  America.  Until  a  few 
years  before  1897  there  were  large  re- 
gions, even  in  the  United  States,  where 
the  teeming  myriads  of  wild  game, 
though  of  far  fewer  and  less  varied 
'3 


Good  Hunting 

species,  almost  equalled  the  multitudes 
found  in  South  Africa,  and  much  sur- 
passed those  found  anywhere  else  in 
point  of  numbers,  though  inferior  in 
variety  to  those  of  India. 

This,  however,  is  now  a  thing  of  the 
past.  The  bison,  which  was  the  most 
characteristic  animal  of  the  American 
fauna,  has  been  practically  exterminated. 
There  remained  in  1897,  however,  a  fair 
abundance  of  all  other  kinds  of  game. 
Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  one  affording 
*  most  sport  from  the  stand-point  of  the 
hardy  and  skilful  hunter  is  the  big-horn, 
^  though  in  size  and  in  magnificence  of 
horn  it  is  surpassed  by  some  of  the  wild 
sheep  of  Asia. 

There  is  a  spice  of  danger  in  the  pursuit 
of  the  grizzly-bear — the  largest  of  all  the 
land  bears — especially  in  Alaska,  where 
it  is  even  larger  than  its  Kamtchatkan 
brother.  The  moose  and  the  wapiti — 
14 


The  Wapiti,  or  Round-horned  Elk 

ordinarily  called  the  elk — are  closely  re- 
lated to  the  Old-World  representatives  of 
their  kind ;  but  the  moose  is  a  little  larger 
and  the  wapiti  very  much  larger  than 
any  of  their  European  or  Asiatic  kins- 
folk. In  particular,  the  elk,  or  wapiti, 
is  the  stateliest  of  all  deer,  and  the  most 
beautiful  of  American  game  beasts. 

It  is  a  pity  we  cannot  always  call  the 
wapiti  by  its  right  name,  but  the  hunters 
and  settlers  never  know  him  as  anything 
but  the  elk,  and  I  fear  it  would  be 
pedantry  to  try  to  establish  his  rightful 
title.  In  former  days  the  elk  ranged  to 
tide-water  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  A  few 
lingered  in  Pennsylvania  until  1869,  a 
throughout  the  middle  of  the  century, 
they  were  abundant  on  the  great  plains. 
In  1888  I  shot  one  on  the  Little  Missouri, 
however.  In  many  parts  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  of  the  Coast  Range  the 
species  is  still  as  abundant  as  ever,  and 


Good  Hunting 

this  is  especially  true  of  northwestern 
Wyoming,  since  that  great  animal-pre- 
serve the  Yellowstone  Park  swarms  with 
elk,  and  is  their  natural  nursery  and 
breeding-ground. 

The  elk  is  the  lordliest  of  his  kind 
throughout  the  world.  The  Scotch  stag 
is  a  pygmy  but  a  fourth  his  size.  The 
stags  of  eastern  Europe  are  larger  than 
those  of  Scotland,  and  in  Asia  larger  still, 
approaching  in  size  a  small  wapiti.  They 
are  all  substantially  alike  except  in  size. 

The  wapiti  is  rather  easier  to  kill  than 
the  deer,  because  his  size  makes  it  easier 
to  see  him ;  and  he  is  slower  in  his  move- 
ments, so  that  he  is  easier  to  hit.  When 
pressed  he  can  gallop  very  hard  for  a  few 
hundred  yards,  but  soon  becomes  tired. 
The  trot  is  his  natural  gait,  and  this  he 
can  keep  up  for  hours  at  a  time,  going  at 
a  pace  which  makes  it  necessary  for  a 
horse  to  gallop  smartly  to  overtake  him, 
1 6 


The  Wapiti,  or  Round-horned  Elk     * 


and  clearing  great  logs  in  his  stride,  while 
he  dodges  among  the  thick  timber  in  a 
really  marvellous  way,  when  one  comes 
to  think  of  the  difficulty  he  must  have 
in  handling  his  great  antlers. 

Late  in  September  the  rut  begins,  and 
then  the  elk  gather  in  huge  bands,  while 
the  great  bulls  fight  vicious  battles  for 
leadership.  Hunters  call  this  the  whist- 
ling-time, because  throughout  its  con- 
tinuance the  bulls  are  very  noisy,  con- 
tinually challenging  one  another.  Their 
note  is  really  not  much  like  a  whistle. 
It  consists  of  two  or  three  bars,  rising  and 
then  falling,  ending  with  a  succession  of 
grunts;  the  tone  of  voice  varies  greatly 
in  different  individuals;  but  when  heard 
at  a  little  distance  in  the  heart  of  the 
great  wooded  wilderness  the  sound  is  very 
musical,  and  to  me — and,  I  suppose,  to 
most  hunters — it  is  one  of  the  most  at- 
tractive sounds  in  all  nature. 

17 


r 


Good  Hunting 


At  this  season  the  big  bulls  are  quite 
easy  to  approach  by  any  man  at  all 
skilled  in  still-hunting,  for  their  incessant 
challenging  betrays  their  whereabouts, 
and  they  are  so  angry  and  excited  as  to  be 
less  watchful  than  usual.  Some  of  my 
most  pleasurable  memories  of  hunting 
are  connected  with  stalking  some  great 
bull-elk  in  frosty  weather,  when  the  woods 
rang  with  his  challenges. 

One  evening  in  early  October  I  was 
camped  high  among  the  mountains  of 
western  Montana.  We  were  travelling 
with  a  pack-train,  and  had  pitched  our 
small  tent  among  some  firs  by  a  brook, 
while  the  horses  grazed  in  the  little  park 
or  meadow  close  by.  Elk  were  plentiful 
round  about.  We  had  seen  their  trails 
everywhere,  and  late  in  the  afternoon 
we  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  band  of 
cows  as  they  disappeared  among  the 
pines. 

'8 


SIX-POINT    ELK-ANTLERS 


The  Wapiti,  or  Round-horned  Elk 

Towards  morning  I  was  awakened  by 
hearing  a  bull  challenge  not  very  far 
from  camp.  The  sound  of  the  challenge 
kept  coming  nearer  and  nearer,  and 
finally  I  heard  one  of  the  horses  snort 
loudly  in  response ;  evidently  the  elk  saw 
them,  and,  not  making  out  exactly  what 
they  were,  was  coming  down  to  join  them. 
Sometimes  horses  will  stampede  when 
thus  approached;  but  our  ponies  were 
veterans,  and  were  very  tired,  and  evi- 
dently had  no  intention  of  leaving  their 
good  pasture. 

Sitting  up  in  my  blankets,  I  could  tell 
from  the  sound  that  they  were  still  in  the 
park,  and  then  the  challenge  of  the  bull 
came  pealing  up  not  three  hundred  yards 
from  the  tent.  This  was  more  than  I 
could  stand,  and  I  jumped  up  and  put  on 
my  shoes  and  jacket.  The  moon  was 
bright,  but  shooting  by  moonlight  is  very 
deceptive,  and  I  doubt  whether  I  would 
19 


Good  Hunting 


have  hit  him  even  had  I  got  down  to  the 
park  in  time.  However,  he  had  moved 
on  before  I  got  down,  and  I  heard  his  chal- 
lenge in  the  woods  beyond. 

Looking  at  my  watch,  I  saw  that  it  was 
nearly  dawn.  I  returned  to  the  tent  and 
laid  down  as  I  was  under  the  blankets,  and 
shivered  and  dozed  for  half  an,  hour,  then 
I  came  back  to  the  meadow,  where  the 
pack -ponies  stood  motionless.  In  the 
brightening  light  the  moon  paled,  and 
I  was  very  soon  able  to  pick  out  the  bull's 
trail  on  the  frost-covered  ground,  where 
it  was  almost  as  plain  as  if  he  had  been 
walking  in  snow.  I  saw  that  he  had 
struck  up  a  long  valley,  from  which  a 
pass  led  into  a  wooded  basin.  At  the 
top  of  the  pass  I  lost  the  trail  entirely, 
and  as  it  was  almost  impossible  to  see  for 
any  distance  through  the  woods,  I  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  best  thing  to  do 
was  to  sit  down  and  await  events. 


20 


The  Wapiti,  or  Round-horned  Elk 


I  did  not  have  long  to  wait.  In  a 
couple  of  minutes  the  bugle  of  a  bull  came 
echoing  across  the  basin  through  the 
frosty  morning.  Evidently  my  friend 
was  still  travelling,  hunting  for  some 
possibly  weaker  rival.  Almost  imme- 
diately I  heard  far  off  another  answering 
the  challenge,  and  I  stood  up  and  medi- 
tated what  to  do.  There  was  very  little 
air,  but  such  as  there  was  blew  to  one 
side  of  the  spot  from  which  the  last  chal- 
lenge seemed  to  come,  and  I  immediately 
struck  off  at  a  trot  through  the  woods  to 
get  below  the  wind. 

The  answer  to  the  challenge  had  evi- 
dently greatly  excited  the  bull  whose 
trail  I  had  been  following ;  he  called  every 
two  or  three  minutes.  The  other  answer 
was  somewhat  more  irregular,  and  as  I 
drew  nearer  I  could  tell  from  the  volume 
of  sound  that  the  second  challenge  was 
from  some  big  master-bull,  who  probably 
21 


Good  Hunting 

had  his  herd  around  him,  and  was  roaring 
defiance  at  his  would-be  despoiler,  for 
the  single  bull  was  doubtless  on  the  look- 
out for  some  weaker  one  whom  he  could 
supplant  as  master  of  a  herd. 

It  was  likely  that  the  second  bull,  being 
a  herd -master,  would  have  the  larger 
antlers,  and  I  therefore  preferred  to  get 
a  shot  at  him.  However,  I  was  doomed 
to  disappointment.  As  I  groped  towards 
the  herd,  and  wras  within  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred yards,  as  I  knew  by  the  volume  of 
sound,  I  almost  stumbled  upon  a  small 
spike-bull,  who  was  evidently  loitering 
about  the  outskirts  of  the  herd,  not  dar- 
ing to  go  too  near  the  bad-tempered  old 
chief.  This  little  bull  dashed  away,  giving 
:  the  alarm,  and  a  clash  in  the  bushes  soon 
told  that  the  herd  was  following  him. 

But  luck  favored  me.  The  master- 
bull,  being  absorbed  in  thoughts  of  his 
rival,  evidently  suspected  that  the  cows 


! 


GREAT    WAS    THE    BULL'S    ASTONISHMENT 


The  Wapiti,  or  Round-horned  Elk 


had  some  thought  of  fleeing  from  him, 
and,  as  they  ran,  tried  to  hold  them  to- 
gether. I  ran  too,  going  at  full  speed, 
with  the  hope  of  cutting  him  off;  in  this 
I  failed,  but  I  came  almost  face  to  face 
with  the  very  bull  which  I  had  been 
following  from  camp,  and  which  had 
evidently  followed  the  herd  at  full  speed 
as  soon  as  they  ran. 

Great  was  his  astonishment  when  he 
saw  me.     He  pulled  up  so  suddenly  to 
wheel  round  that  he  almost  fell  on  his 
side ;  then  off  he  went  in  a  plunging  gallop 
of  terror;  but  he  was  near  by,  and  step- 
ping to  one  side  I  covered  an  opening  be- 
tween, two  trees,   firing  the  minute  he 
appeared.    A  convulsive  leap  showed  that 
the  bullet  had  struck,  and  after  him  I> 
went  at  full  speed.     In  a  short  time  I  saw  || 
him  again,  walking  along  with  drooping 
head,  and  again  I  fired  into  his  flank;  he 
seemed  to  pay  no  attention  to  the  shot,  ., 
23 


Good  Hunting 

but  walked  forward  a  few  steps,  then 
halted,  faltered,  and  fell  on  his  side.  In, 
another  second  I  had  placed  my  rifle 
against  a  tree,  and  was  admiring  his 
shapely  form  and  massive  antlers. 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 


II 


A   CATTLE-KILLING   BEAR 


HERE  were,  in  1897,  a  few 
grizzlies  left  here  and  there 
along  the  Little  Missouri, 
usually  in  large  bottoms 
covered  with  an  almost 
impenetrable  jungle  of  timber  and  thorny 
brush.  In  the  old  days  they  used  to  be 
very  plentiful  in  this  region,  and  vent- 
ured boldly  out  on  the  prairie.  The 
Little  Missouri  region  was  a  famous  hunt- 
ing-ground for  both  the  white  trappers 
and  the  Indian  hunters  in  those  old  days 
when  the  far  West  was  still  a  wilderness, 
and  the  men  who  trapped  beaver  would 
27 


X 


Good  Hunting 


wander  for  years  over  the  plains  and 
mountains  and  see  no  white  faces  save 
those  of  their  companions. 

Indeed,  at  that  time  the  Little  Missouri 
was  very  dangerous  country,  as  it  was  the 
debatable-ground  between  many  power- 
ful Indian  tribes,  and  was  only  visited 
by  formidable  war-parties  and  hunting- 
parties.  In  consequence  of  nobody  dar- 
ing to  live  there,  game  swarmed — buffalo, 
elk,  deer,  antelope,  mountain-sheep,  and 
bear.  The  bears  were  then  very  bold, 
and  the  hunters  had  little  difficulty  in 
getting  up  to  them,  for  they  were  quite 
as  apt  to  attack  as  to  run  away. 

But  when,  in  1880,  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad  reached  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Little  Missouri,  all  this  changed  forever. 
The  game  that  for  untold  ages  had  trod- 
den out  their  paths  over  the  prairies  and 
along  the  river-bottoms  vanished,  as  the 
Indians  that  had  hunted  it  also  vanished. 
28 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 


The  bold  white  hunters  also  passed  away 
with  the  bears  they  had  chased  and  the 
red  foes  against  whom  they  had  warred. 
In  their  places  the  ranchman  came  in  with 
great  herds  of  cattle  and  horses  and 
flocks  of  sheep,  and  built  their  log  cabins 
and  tilled  their  scanty  garden-patches, 
and  cut  down  the  wild  hay  for  winter 
fodder.  Now  bears  are  as  shy  as  they 
are  scarce.  No  grizzly  in  such  a  settled 
region  would  dream  of  attacking  a  man 
unprovoked,  and  they  pass  their  days  in 
the  deepest  thickets,  so  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  at  them.  I  never 
killed  a  bear  in  the  neighborhood  of  my 
former  ranch,  though  I  have  shot  quite  a 
number  some  hundreds  of  miles  to  the 
west  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Usually    the    bears    live    almost    ex- 
clusively on  roots,  berries,  insects,  and 
the  like.     In  fact,  there  is  always  some- 
thing grotesque  and  incongruous  in  com- 
29 


Good  Hunting 


paring  the  bear's  vast  size,  and  his 
formidable  claws  and  teeth,  with  the 
uses  to  which  those  claws  and  teeth  are 
normally  put.  At  the  end  of  the  season 
the  claws,  which  are  very  long  in  spring, 
sometimes  become  so  much  blunted  as 
to  be  tender,  because  the  bear  has  worked 
on  hard  ground  digging  roots  and  the 
like. 

Bears  often  graze  on  the  fresh  tender 
spring  grass.  Berries  form  their  especial 
delight,  and  they  eat  them  so  greedily 
when,  in  season  as  to  become  inordinately 
fat.  Indeed,  a  bear  in  a  berry -patch 
frequently  grows  so  absorbed  in  his  work 
as  to  lose  his  wariness,  and  as  he  makes 
a  good  deal  of  noise  himself  in  breaking 
branches  and  gobbling  down  the  fruit, 
he  is  exposed  to  much  danger  from  the 
hunter. 

Besides  roots  and  berries,  the  bear  will 
feed  on  any  small  living  thing  he  en- 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 


counters.  If  in  plundering  a  squirrel's 
cache  he  comes  upon  some  young  squirrels, 
down  they  go  in  company  with  the  hoard- 
ed uuts.  He  is  continually  knocking  to 
pieces  and  overturning  old  dead  logs  for 
the  sake  of  devouring  the  insects  living 
beneath  them.  If,  when  such  a  log  is 
overturned,  mice,  shrews,  or  chipmunks 
are  found  underneath,  the  bear  promptly 
scoops  them  into  his  mouth  while  they 
are  still  dazed  by  the  sudden  inrush  of 
light.  All  this  seems  rather  ludicrous 
as  the  life  work  of  an  animal  of  such  huge 
proportions  and  such  vast  strength. 

Sometimes,  however,  a  bear  will  take 
to  killing  fresh  meat  for  itself.  Indeed, 
I  think  it  is  only  its  clumsiness  that 
prevents  it  from  becoming  an  habitual 
flesh-eater.  Deer  are  so  agile  that  bears 
can  rarely  get  them;  yet  on  occasions 
not  only  deer,  but  moose,  buffalo,  and 
elk  fall  victims  to  them.  Wild  game, 


Good  Hunting 

however,  are  so  shy,  so  agile,  and  so 
alert  that  it  is  only  rarely  they  afford 
meals  to  old  Ephraim — as  the  mountain 
hunters  call  the  grizzly. 

Domestic  animals  are  slower,  more 
timid,  more  clumsy,  and  with  far  duller 
senses.  It  is  on  these  that  the  bear  by 
preference  preys  when  he  needs  fresh 
meat.  I  have  never,  myself,  known  one 
to  kill  horses;  but  I  have  been  informed 
that  the  feat  is  sometimes  performed, 
usually  in  spring ;  and  the  ranchman  who 
told  me  insisted  that  when  a  bear  made 
his  rush  he  went  with  such  astonishing 
speed  that  the  horse  was  usually  over- 
taken before  it  got  well  under  way. 

The  favorite  food  of  a  bear,  however, 
if  he  really  wants  fresh  meat,  is  a  hog  or 
sheep — by  preference  the  former.  If  a 
bear  once  gets  into  the  habit  of  visiting 
a  sheepfold  or  pigpen,  it  requires  no 
slight  skill  and  watchfulness  to  keep 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 

him  out.  As  for  swine,  they  dread  bears 
more  than  anything  else.  A  drove  of 
half -wild  swine  will  make  head  against  a 
wolf  or  panther;  but  the  bear  scatters 
them  in  a  panic.  This  feat  is  entire- 
ly justifiable,  for  a  bear  has  a  peculiar 
knack  in  knocking  down  a  hog,  and  then 
literally  eating  him  alive,  in  spite  of  his 
fearful  squealing. 

Every  now  and  then  bears  take  to  kill- 
ing cattle  regularly.    Sometimes  the  crim- 
inal is  a  female  with  cubs ;  sometimes  an 
old  male  in  spring,  when  he  is  lean,  and  has 
the  flesh  hunger  upon  him.     But  on  one 
occasion  a  very  large  and  cunning  bear, 
some  twenty-five  miles  below  my  ranch, 
took  to  cattle-killing  early  in  the  sum-11* 
mer,  and  continued  it  through  the  fall/3; 
He  made  his  home  in  a  very  densely  |^j 
wooded   bottom;  but   he  wandered  far 
and  wide,  and  I  have  myself  frequently^' 
seen  his  great,   half  -  human  footprints 
3  33 


Good  Hunting 

leading  along  some  narrow  divide,  or 
across  some  great  plateau,  where  there 
was  no  cover  whatever,  and  where  he 
must  have  gone  at  night.  During  the 
daytime,  when  on  one  of  these  expedi- 
tions, he  would  lie  up  in  some  timber 
coulee,  and  return  to  the  river-bottoms 
after  dark,  so  that  no  one  ever  saw 
him;  but  his  tracks  were  seen  very  fre- 
quently. 

He  began  operations  on  the  bottom 
.where  he  had  his  den.  He  at  first  took 
to  lying  in  wait  for  the  cattle  as  they 
came  down  to  drink,  when  he  would  seize 
some  animal,  usually  a  fat  young  steer  or 
>  heifer,  knocking  it  over  by  sheer  force. 
In  his  furious  rush  he  sometimes  broke 
the  back  with  a  terrific  blow  from  his 
fore-paw;  at  other  times  he  threw  the 
animal  over  and  bit  it  to  death.  The 
rest  of  the  herd  never  made  any  effort  to 
retaliate,  but  fled  in  terror.  Very  soon 
34 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 

the  cattle  wrould  not  go  down  on  this 
bottom  at  all;  then  he  began  to  wander 
over  the  adjoining  bottoms,  and  finally 
to  make  excursions  far  off  in  the  broken 
country.  Evidently  he  would  some- 
times at  night  steal  along  a  coulee  until 
he  found  cattle  lying  down  on  the  hill- 
side, and  then  approach  cautiously  and 
seize  his  prey. 

Usually  the  animals  he  killed  were  cows 
or  steers;   and  noticing  this,   a  certain 
ranchman  in  the  neighborhood  used  to 
boast  that  a  favorite  bull  on  his  ranch,  of 
which  he  was  particularly  proud,  would  ( 
surely  account  for  the  bear  if  the  latter :* 
dared  to  attack  him.    The  boast  poved  3: 
vain.     One  day  a  cow-boy  riding  down 
a  lonely  coulee  came  upon  the  scene  ofj 
what  had  evidently  been  a  very  hard  con 
flict.     There  were  deep  marks  of  hoof 
and  claws  in  the  soft  soil,  bushes  wer< 
smashed    down    where    the    struggling 

35 

v*.  «»**  ** 


Good  Hunting 

combatants  had  pressed  against  and  over 
them,  and  a  little  farther  on  lay  the  re- 
mains of  the  bull. 

He  must  have  been  seized  by  surprise ; 
probably  the  great  bear  rushed  at  him 
from  behind,  or  at  one  side,  and  fastened 
upon  him  so  that  he  had  no  fair  chance  to 
use  his  horns.  Nevertheless,  he  made  a 
gallant  struggle  for  his  life,  staggering  to 
and  fro  trying  to  shake  off  his  murderous 
antagonist,  and  endeavoring  in  vain  to 
strike  back  over  his  shoulder ;  but  all  was 
useless.  Even  his  strength  could  not 
avail  against  the  might  of  his  foe,  and 
the  cruel  claws  and  teeth  tore  out  his 
life.  At  last  the  gallant  bull  fell  and 
breathed  his  last,  and  the  bear  feasted 
on  the  carcass. 

The  angry  ranchman  swore  vengeance, 
and  set  a  trap  for  the  bear,  hoping  it  would 
return.  The  sly  old  beast,  however, 
doubtless  was  aware  that  the  body  had 


>  r 

H    *! 


o 

H    D 


A  Cattle-killing  Bear 

been  visited,  for  he  never  came  back,  but 
returned  to  the  river-bottom,  and  again 
from  time  to  time  was  heard  of  as  slay- 
ing some  animal.  However,  at  last  his 
fate  overtook  him.  Early  one  morning 
a  cow  was  discovered  just  killed  and  not 
yet  eaten,  the  bear  having  probably 
been  scared  off.  Immediately  the  ranch- 
man put  poison  in  the  bait  which  the  bear 
had  thus  himself  left,  and  twenty-four 
hours  later  the  shaggy  beast  was  found 
lying  dead  within  a  dozen  yards  of  his 
last  victim. 


A  Christmas  Buck 


Ill 


A    CHRISTMAS    BUCK 


HROUGHOUT  most  of  the 
ranch   country   there    are 
two    kinds    of    deer,    the 
black-tail  and  the  white- 
tail.     The  white-tail  is  the 
same  as  the  deer  of  the  East ;  it   is  a 
beautiful  creature,  a  marvel  of  lightness 
and  grace  in  all  its  movements,  and 
loves  to  dwell  in  thick  timber,  so  that  in  ' 
the  plains  country  it  is  almost  confined^ 
to  the   heavily  wooded    river   bottoms. 
The  black-tail  is  somewhat  larger,  with! 
a  different  and  very  peculiar  gait,  con-, 
sisting  of    a   succession  of    stiff -legged 
41 


Good  Hunting 


bounds,  all  four  feet  striking  the  earth 
at  the  same  time.  Its  habits  are  like- 
wise very  different,  as  it  is  a  bolder  ani- 
mal and  much  fonder  of  the  open  coun- 
try. Among  the  Rockies  it  is  found  in 
the  deep  forests,  but  it  prefers  scantily 
wooded  regions,  and  in  the  plains  country 
it  dwells  by  choice  in  the  rough  hills, 
spending  the  day  in  the  patches  of  ash  or 
cedar  among  the  ravines.  In  1882  the 
black-tail  was  very  much  more  abun- 
dant than  the  white-tail  almost  every- 
where in  the  West,  but  owing  to  the  nat- 
ure of  its  haunts  it  is  more  easily  killed 
out,  and  in  1897,  though  both  species 
had  decreased  in  numbers,  the  white-tail 
was  on  the  whole  the  more  common. 

My  ranch-house  was  situated  on  a 
heavily  wooded  bottom,  one  of  the  places 
where  the  white-tail  were  found.  On 
one  occasion  I  killed  one  from  the  ranch 
veranda,  and  two  or  three  times  I  shot 

42 


A  Christmas  Buck 


them  within  half  a  mile  of  the  house. 
Nevertheless,  they  are  so  cunning  and 
stealthy  in  their  ways,  and  the  cover  is 
so  dense,  that  usually,  although  one  may 
know  of  their  existence  right  in  one's 
neighborhood,  there  is  more  chance  of 
getting  game  by  going  off  eight  or  ten 
miles  into  the  broken  country  of  the 
black-tail. 

One  Christmas  I  was  to  be  at  the 
ranch,  and  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I 
would  try  to  get  a  good  buck  for  our 
Christmas  dinner;  for  I  had  not  had 
much  time  to  hunt  that  fall,  and  Christ- 
mas was  almost  upon  us  before  we  start- 
ed to  lay  in  our  stock  of  winter  meat.  So 
I  arranged  with  one  of  the  cow-boys  to 
make  an  all -day's  hunt  through  some 
rugged  hills  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
where  we  knew  there  were  black-tail. 

We  were  up  soon  after  three  o'clock, 
when  it  was  yet  as  dark  as  at  midnight. 

43 


«V" 


Good  Hunting 


We  had  a  long  day's  work  before  us, 
and  so  we  ate  a  substantial  breakfast, 
then  put  on  our  fur  caps,  coats,  and 
mittens,  and  walked  out  into  the  cold 
night.  The  air  was  still,  but  it  was  biting 
weather,  and  we  pulled  our  caps  down 
over  our  ears  as  we  walked  towards  the 
rough,  low  stable  where  the  two  hunting- 
ponies  had  been  put  overnight.  In  a  few 
minutes  we  were  jogging  along  on  our 
journey. 

There  was  a  powder  of  snow  over  the 
ground,  and  this  and  the  brilliant  star- 
light enabled  us  to  see  our  way  without 
difficulty.  The  river  was  frozen,  hard, 
and  the  hoofs  of  the  horses  rang  on  the  ice 
as  they  crossed.  For  a  while  we  followed 
the  wagon  road,  and  then  struck  off  into 
a  cattle  trail  which  led  up  into  a  long 
coulee.  After  a  while  this  faded  out, 
and  we  began  to  work  our  way  along  the 
divide,  not  without  caution,  for  in  broken 
44 


A  Christmas  Buck 


countries  it  is  hard  to  take  a  horse  during 
darkness.  Indeed,  we  found  we  had  left 
a  little  too  early,  for  there  was  hardly  a 
glimmer  of  dawn  when  we  reached  our 
proposed  hunting-grounds.  We  left  the 
horses  in  a  sheltered  nook  where  there 
was  abundance  of  grass,  and  strode  off  on 
foot,  numb  after  the  ride. 

The  dawn  brightened  rapidly,  and  there 
was  almost  light  enough  for  shooting  when 
we  reached  a  spur  overlooking  a  large 
basin  around  whose  edges  there  were  sev- 
eral wooded  coulees.     Here  we  sat  down  - 
to  wait  and  watch.     We  did  not  have  to 
wait  long,  for  just  as  the  sun  was  coming 
up  on  our  right  hand  we  caught  a  glimpse^ 
of  something  moving  at  the  mouth  of  one,  4®  j 
of  the  little  ravines  some  hundreds  of  d*$|  i 

•zz'lftn. 

yards  distant.     Another  glance  showed 
us  that  it  was  a  deer  feeding,  while  an- 
other behind  it  was  walking  leisurely  in* 
our  direction. 

45 


A  Christmas  Buck 


companion,  dashed  out  of  the  coulee  in 
front,  across  the  basin.  It  was  broad- 
side to  me,  and  not  more  than  one  hun- 
dred yards  distant;  but  a  running  deer 
is  difficult  to  hit,  and  though  I  took  two 
shots,  both  missed,  and  it  disappeared 
behind  another  spur. 

This  looked  pretty  bad,  and  I  felt 
rather  blue  as  I  climbed  up  to  look  at  the 
trail  of  the  spike.  I  was  cheered  to  find 
blood,  and  as  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
snow  here  and  there  it  was  easy  to  follow 
it ;  nor  was  it  long  before  we  saw  the  buck 
moving  forward  slowly,  evidently  very 
sick.  We  did  not  disturb  him,  but 
watched  him  until  he  turned  down  into 
a  short  ravine  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off; 
he  did  not  come  out,  and  we  sat  down  and 
waited  nearly  an  hour  to  give  him  time  to 
get  stiff.  When  we  reached  the  valley, 
one  went  down  each  side  so  as  to  be  sure 
to  get  him  when  he  jumped  up.  Our 


Good  Hunting 


/  .1 


caution  was  needless,  however,  for  we 
failed  to  start  him;  and  on  hunting 
through  some  of  the  patches  of  brush 
we  found  him  stretched  out  already 
dead. 

This  was  satisfactory;  but  still  it  was 
not  the  big  buck,  and  we  started  out  again 
after  dressing  and  hanging  up  the  deer. 
For  many  hours  we  saw  nothing,  and  we 
had  swung  around  within  a  couple  of 
miles  of  the  horses  before  we  sat  down  be- 
hind a  screen  of  stunted  cedars  for  a  last 
look.  After  attentively  scanning  every 
patch  of  brush  in  sight,  we  were  about  to 
go  on  when  the  attention  of  both  of  us 
was  caught  at  the  same  moment  by  seeing 
a  big  buck  deliberately  get  up,  turn  round, 
and  then  lie  down  again  in  a  grove  of 
small,  leafless  trees  lying  opposite  to  us  on 
a  hill-side  with  a  southern  exposure.  He 
had  evidently  very  nearly  finished  his 
day's  rest,  but  was  not  quite  ready  to  go 
48 


A  Christmas  Buck 


out  to  feed;  and  his  restlessness  cost 
him  his  life. 

As  we  now  knew  just  where  he  was,  the 
work  was  easy.  We  marked  a  place  on 
the  hill-top  a  little  above  and  to  one  side 
of  him ;  and  while  the  cow-boy  remained 
to  watch  him,  I  drew  back  and  walked 
leisurely  round  to  where  I  could  get  a 
shot.  When  nearly  up  to  the  crest  I 
crawled  into  view  of  the  patch  of  brush, 
rested  my  elbows  on  the  ground,  and 
gently  tapped  two  stones  together.  The 
buck  rose  nimbly  to  his  feet,  and  at 
seventy  yards  afforded  me  a  standing 
shot,  which  I  could  not  fail  to  turn  to 
good  account. 

A  winter  day  is  short,  and  twilight  had 
come  before  we  had  packed  both  bucks 
on  the  horses ;  but  with  our  game  behind 
our  saddles  we  did  not  feel  either  fatigue, 
or  hunger  or  cold,  while  the  horses  trotted 
steadily  homeward.  The  moon  was  a 
49 


Good  Hunting 

few  days  old,  and  it  gave  us  light  until  we 
reached  the  top  of  the  bluffs  by  the  river 
and  saw  across  the  frozen  stream  the 
gleam  from  the  fire-lit  windows  of  the 
ranch-house. 


The  Timber-wolf 


IV 


THE    TIMBER-WOLF 

HERE   are   two   kinds   of 
wolves  found  in  the  United 
States.     One  is  the  little 
coyote  or  prairie-wolf,  or 
barking-wolf,  which  never 
was  found  in  the  Eastern  States,  being  an 
animal  of  the  open  country ;  the  other  is 
the  big  wolf,  sometimes  called  the  buffalo- 
wolf,  and  sometimes  the  timber-wolf  or* 
gray   wolf,    which   was   formerly   found /f 
everywhere   from    the    Atlantic    to 
Pacific.     In  some  districts  it  runs  to  color 
varieties  of  different  kinds — red,  black J 
or  white. 

53 


Good  Hunting 

The  coyote  is  not  at  all  a  formidable 
beast,  and  holds  its  own  quite  persistently 
until  civilization  is  well  advanced  in  a 
country.  Coyotes  are  not  dangerous  to 
either  man  or  the  larger  domestic  animals. 
Lambs,  young  pigs,  hens,  and  cats  often 
become  their  prey,  and  if  very  hungry 
several  of  them  will  combine  to  attack  a 
young  calf.  In  consequence,  farmers  and 
ranchers  kill  them  whenever  the  chance 
offers ;  but  they  do  not  do  damage  which 
is  even  appreciable  when  compared  with 
the  ravages  of  their  grim  big  brother,  the 
gray  wolf,  which  in  many  sections  of  the 
West  is  a  veritable  scourge  of  the  stock- 
men. 

The  big  wolves  shrink  back  before  the 
growth  of  the  thickly  settled  districts, 
and  in  the  Eastern  States  they  often  tend 
to  disappear  even  from  districts  that  are 
uninhabited,  save  by  a  few  wilderness 
hunters.  They  have  thus  disappeared 
54 


Good  Hunting 


especially  the  big  game,  being  entirely 
unused  to  contend  with  the  new  foe,  suc- 
cumbs easily,  and  is  almost  completely 
killed  out.  If  any  individuals  survive 
at  all,  however,  the  succeeding  genera- 
tions are  far  more  difficult  to  exterminate 
than,  were  their  ancestors,  and  they  cling 
much  more  tenaciously  to  their  old  homes. 
The  game  to  be  found  in  old  and  long- 
settled  countries  is  much  more  wary  and 
able  to  take  care  of  itself  than  the  game 
of  an  untrodden  wilderness.  It  is  a  very 
difficult  matter  to  kill  a  Swiss  chamois; 
but  it  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  kill  a  white 
goat  after  a  hunter  has  once  penetrated 
among  the  almost  unknown  peaks  of  the 
mountains  of  British  Columbia.  When, 
the  ranchmen  first  drove  their  cattle  to 
the  Little  Missouri  they  found  the  deer 
tame  and  easy  to  kill,  but  the  deer  of 
Maine  and  the  Adirondacks  test  to  the  full 
the  highest  skill  of  the  hunter. 
56 


The  Timber-wolf 


In  consequence,  after  a  time,  game  may 
even  increase  in  certain  districts  where 
settlements  are  thin.  This  has  been  true 
of  the  wolves  throughout  the  northern 
cattle  country  in  Montana,  Wyoming, 
and  the  western  ends  of  the  Dakotas. 
In  the  old  days  wolves  were  very  plenti- 
ful throughout  this  region,  closely  follow- 
ing the  huge  herds  of  buffaloes.  The 
white  men  who  followed  these  herds  as 
professional  buffalo-hunters  were  often 
accompanied  by  other  men,  known  as 
11  wolfers/'  who  poisoned  these  wolves  for 
the  sake  of  their  furs.  With  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  buffalo  the  wolves 
seemed  so  to  diminish  in  numbers  that 
they  also  seemed  to  disappear.  During 
the  last  ten  years  their  numbers  have 
steadily  increased,  and  now  they  seem  to 
be  as  numerous  as  they  ever  were  in  the 
region  in  question,  and  they  are  infinitely  * 
more  wary  and  more  difficult  to  kill. 
57 


Good  Hunting 

Along  the  Little  Missouri  their  ravages 
were  so  serious  from  1893  to  1897  as  to 
cause  heavy  damage  to  the  stockmen. 
Not  only  colts  and  calves,  but  young  trail 
stock,  and  in  midwinter  even  full-grown 
horses  and  steers,  are  continually  slain; 
and  in  some  seasons  their  losses  have  been 
so  serious  as  to  more  than  eat  up  all  the 
profits  of  the  ranchman.  The  county 
authorities  put  a  bounty  on  wolf  scalps  of 
three  dollars  each,  and  in  my  own  neigh- 
borhood the  ranchmen  of  their  own  ac- 
cord put  on  a  further  bounty  of  five 
dollars.  This  made  eight  dollars  for 
every  wolf,  and  as  the  skin  is  also  worth 
something,  the  business  of  killing  wolves 
was  quite  profitable. 

Wolves  are  very  shy,   and  show  ex- 
traordinary cunning  both  in  hiding  them- 
selves and  in  slinking  out  of  the  way 
the  hunter.     They  are  rarely  killed 
with  the  rifle.     I  have  never  shot  but  one 
5* 


The  Timber-wolf 


myself.  They  are  occasionally  trapped, 
but  after  a  very  few  have  been  procured 
in  this  way  the  survivors  become  so  wary 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  even  for  a 
master  of  the  art  to  do  much  with  them, 
while  an  ordinary  man  can  never  get  one 
into  a  trap  except  by  accident. 

More  can  be  done  with  poison,  but  even 
in  this  case  the  animal  speedily  learns  cau- 
tion by  experience.  When  poison  is  first 
used  in  a  district  wolves  are  very  easily 
killed,  and  perhaps  almost  all  of  them  will 
be  slain,  but  nowadays  it  is  difficult  to 
catch  any  but  young  ones  in  this  way. 
Occasionally  an  old  one  will  succumb,  but 
there  are  always  some  who  cannot  be 
persuaded  to  touch  a  bait.  The  old  she- 
wolves  teach  their  cubs,  as  soon  as  they 
are  able  to  walk,  to  avoid  man's  trace  in 
every  way,  and  to  look  out  for  traps  and 
poison. 

In  consequence,  though  most  cow- 
59 


Good  Hunting 

punchers  carry  poison  with  them,  and  are 
continually  laying  out  baits,  and  though 
some  men  devote  most  of  their  time  to 
poisoning  for  the  sake  of  the  bounty  and 
the  fur,  the  results  are  not  very  remu- 
nerative. 

The  most  successful  wolf -hunter  on  the 
Little  Missouri  in  1896  was  a  man  who 
did  not  rely  on  poison  at  all,  but  on  dogs. 
He  was  a  hunter  named  Massingale,  and 
he  always  had  a  pack  of  at  least  twrenty 
hounds.  The  number  varied,  for  a  wolf 
at  bay  is  a  terrible  fighter,  with  jaws  like 
those  of  a  steel  trap  and  teeth  that  cut 
like  knives,  so  that  the  dogs  were  con- 
tinually disabled  and  sometimes  killed, 
and  the  hunter  had  always  to  be  on  the 
watch  to  add  animals  to  his  pack. 

It  was  not  a  pack  that  would  appeal,  as 
far  as  looks  go,  to  an  old  huntsman,  but 
it  was  thoroughly  fitted  for  its  own  work. 
Most  of  the  dogs  were  greyhounds,  either 
60 


0 

o 

O 


o 
r 
c 

c 
r 


The  Timber-wolf 


rough  or  smooth  haired,  but  many  of 
them  were  big  mongrels,  and  part  some 
other  breed,  such  as  bull-dog,  mastiff, 
Newfoundland,  blood-hound,  or  collie. 

The  only  two  necessary  requisites  were 
that  the  dogs  should  run  fast  and  fight 
gamely ;  and  in  consequence  they  formed 
as  wicked,  hard-biting  a  crew  as  ever  ran 
down  and  throttled  a  wolf.  They  were 
usually  taken  out  ten  at  a  time,  and  by 
their  aid  Massingale  killed  two  hundred 
wolves  in  the  course  of  the  year. 

Of  course  there  was  no  pretence  of 
giving  the  game  fair  play.  The  wolves 
were  killed  as  vermin,  not  for  sport.  The 
greatest  havoc  was  in  the  spring-time, 
when  the  she -wolves  were  followed  to 
their  dens,  which  were  sometimes  holes  > 
in  the  earth  and  sometimes  natural  caves. 
There  were  from  three  to  nine  whelps  in 
each  litter.  Some  of  the  hounds  were, 
very  fast,  and  they  could  usually  over- 
61 


Good  Hunting 


take  a  young  or  weak  wolf;  but  an  old 
wolf-dog,  with  a  good  start,  unless  run 
into  at  once,  would  surely  get  away  if  he 
were  in  running  trim.  Frequently,  how- 
ever, he  was  caught  when  he  was  not  in 
running  trim,  for  the  hunter  was  apt  to 
find  him  when  he  had  killed  a  calf  or 
taken  part  in  dragging  down  a  horse  or 
steer.  Under  these  circumstances  he 
could  not  run  long  before  the  pack. 

If  possible,  as  with  all  such  packs,  the 
hunter  himself  would  get  up  in  time  to 
end  the  worry  by  a  stab  of  his  hunting- 
knife;  but  unless  he  was  quick  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do,  for  the  pack  was 
thoroughly  competent  to  do  its  own  kill- 
ing. Grim  fighter  though  a  great  wolf- 
dog  is,  he  stands  no  show  before  the 
onslaught  of  ten  such  dogs,  agile  and 
powerful,  who  rush  on  their  antagonist 
in  a  body.  They  possessed  great  power 

their  jaws,  and  unless  Massingale  was 
62 


The  Timber-wolf 


up  within  two  or  three  minutes  after  the 
wolf  was  taken,  the  dogs  literally  tore 
him  to  pieces,  though  one  or  more  of 
their  number  might  be  killed  or  crippled 
in  the  fight. 

Other  hunters  were  striving  to  get  to- 
gether packs  thoroughly  organized,  and 
the  wolves  may  be  thinned  out;  they 
were  certainly  altogether  too  plentiful. 
During  the  fall  of  1896  I  saw  a  number 
myself,  although  I  was  not  looking  for 
them.  I  frequently  came  upon  the  re- 
mains of  sheep  and  young  stock  which 
they  had  killed,  and  once,  on  the  top  of  a 
small  plateau,  I  found  the  body  of  a  large 
steer,  while  the  torn  and  trodden  ground 
showed  that  he  had  fought  hard  for  his 
life  before  succumbing.  There  were  ap- 
parently two  wolves  engaged  in  the  work, 
and  the  cunning  beasts  had  evidently 
acted  in  concert.  While  one  attracted 
the  steer's  attention,  the  other,  according 


Good  Hunting 

to  the  invariable  wolf  habit,  attacked 
him  from  behind,  hamstringing  him  and 
tearing  out  his  flanks.  His  body  was 
still  warm  when  I  came  up,  but  his  mur- 
derers had  slunk  off,  either  seeing  or 
smelling  me.  Their  handiwork  was  un- 
mistakable, however,  for,  unlike  bears 
and  cougars,  wolves  invariably  attack 
|  their  victim  at  the  hind-quarters,  and  be- 
gin their  feast  on  the  hams  or  flanks  if 
the  animal  is  of  any  size. 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 


V 


SHOOTING    THE    PRONG-BUCK 


OR  a  few  years  before  1897, 
when  I  visited  my  cattle 
range  I  spent  most  of  my 
time  out  on  the  great 
plains,  where  almost  the 
only  game  that  can  be  found  is  the 
prong-horned  antelope ;  and  as  on  such 
trips  the  party  depends  for  fresh  meat 
upon  the  rifle,  I  have  on  each  occasion 
done  a  certain  amount  of  antelope- 
shooting. 

In  the  old  days,  when  antelope  were  far 
more  plentiful  than  they  are  now,  they 
could  often  be  procured  by  luring  them 
67 


Good  Hunting 

with  a  red  flag — for  they  are  very  in- 
quisitive beasts  —  but  now  they  have 
grown  wary,  and  must  usually  be  either 
stalked,  which  is  very  difficult,  owing  to 
their  extreme  keenness  of  vision  and  the 
absence  of  cover  on  the  prairies,  or  else 
must  be  ridden  into. 

With  first-class  greyhounds  and  good 
horses  they  can  often  be  run  down  in  fair 
chase;  but  ordinarily  the  rider  can  hope 
for  nothing  more  than  to  get  within  fair 
shooting-range,  and  this  only  by  taking 
advantage  of  their  peculiarity  of  running 
straight  ahead  in  the  direction  in  which 
they  are  pointed  when  once  they  have 
settled  to  their  pace.  Usually  antelope, 
as  soon  as  they  see  a  hunter,  run  straight 
away  from  him ;  but  sometimes  they  make 
their  flight  at  an  angle,  and  as  they  do 
not  like  to  change  their  course  when  once 
started,  it  is  occasionally  possible  to  cut 
them  off  from  the  point  towards  which 
68 


STALKING    BIG    GAME 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 

they  are  headed,  and  get  a  reasonably 
close  shot. 

In  the  fall  of  1896  I  spent  a  fortnight 
on  the  range  with  the  ranch  wagon.  I 
was  using  for  the  first  time  one  of  the 
then  new  small-caliber,  smokeless-powder 
rifles,  a  30-30-160  Winchester.  I  had  a 
half -jacketed  bullet,  the  butt  being  cased 
in  hard  metal,  while  the  nose  was  of  pure 
lead. 

While  travelling  to  and  fro  across  the 
range  we  usually  broke  camp  each  day, 
not  putting  up  the  tent  at  all  during  the 
trip ;  but  at  one  spot  we  spent  three  nights. 
It  was  in  a  creek  bottom,  bounded  on 
either  side  by  rows  of  grassy  hills,  beyond 
which  stretched  the  rolling  prairie.  The 
creek  bed,  which  at  this  season  was  of 
course  dry  in  most  places,  wound  in 
S-shaped  curves,  with  here  and  there  a 
pool  and  here  and  there  a  fringe  of  stunted, 
wind-beaten  timber.  We  were  camped 
69 


Good  Hunting 


near  a  little  grove  of  ash,  box-alder,  and 
willow,  which  gave  us  shade  at  noonday ; 
and  there  were  two  or  three  pools  of  good 
water  in  the  creek  bed — one  so  deep  that 
I  made  it  my  swimming-bath. 

The  first  day  that  I  was  able  to  make 
a  hunt  I  rode  out  with  my  foreman, 
Sylvane  Ferris.  I  was  mounted  on 
Muley.  Twelve  years  before,  when  Muley 
was  my  favorite  cutting -pony  on  the 
round-up,  he  never  seemed  to  tire  or  to 
lose  his  dash,  but  Muley  was  now  sixteen 
years  old,  and  on  ordinary  occasions  he 
liked  to  go  as  soberly  as  possible ;  yet  the 
good  old  pony  still  had  the  fire  latent  in 
his  blood,  and  at  the  sight  of  game — or, 
indeed,  of  cattle  or  horses — he  seemed  to 
regain  for  the  time  being  all  the  head- 
long courage  of  his  vigorous  and  supple 
youth. 

On  the  morning  in  question  it  was  two 
or  three  hours  before  Sylvane  and  I  saw 
70 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 

any  game.  Our  two  ponies  went  steadily 
forward  at  a  single  foot  or  shack,  as  the 
cow-punchers  term  wrhat  Easterners  call 
"a  fox  trot."  Most  of  the  time  we  were 
passing  over  immense  grassy  flats,  where 
the  mats  of  short  curled  blades  lay  brown 
and  parched  under  the  bright  sunlight. 
Occasionally  w^e  came  to  ranges  of  low, 
barren  hills,  which  sent  off  gently  round- 
ing spurs  into  the  plain. 

It  was  on  one  of  these  ranges  that  we 
first  saw  our  game.  As  we  were  travelling 
along  the  divide  we  spied  eight  antelope 
far  ahead  of  us.  They  saw  us  as  soon  as 
we  saw  them,  and  the  chance  of  getting 
to  them  seemed  small;  but  it  was  worth 
an  effort,  for  by  humoring  them  when 
they  start  to  run,  and  galloping  towards 
them  at  an  oblique  angle  to  their  line 
of  flight,  there  is  always  some  little  chance 
of  getting  a  shot.  Sylvane  was  on  a  light 
buckskin  horse,  and  I  left  him  on  the 


Good  Hunting 

ridge  crest  to  occupy  their  time  while  I 
cantered  off  to  one  side. 

The  prong-horns  became  uneasy  as  I 
galloped  off,  and  ran  off  the  ridge  crest  in 
a  line  nearly  parallel  to  mine.  They  did 
not  go  very  fast,  and  I  held  Muley  in,  who 
was  all  on  fire  at  the  sight  of  the  game. 
After  crossing  two  or  three  spurs,  the 
antelope  going  at  half  speed,  they  found 
I  had  come  closer  to  them,  and,  turning, 
they  ran  up  one  of  the  valleys  between 
two  spurs. 

Now  was  my  chance,  and,  wheeling  at 
right  angles  to  my  former  course,  I 
galloped  Muley  as  hard  as  I  knew  how  up 
the  valley  nearest  and  parallel  to  where 
the  antelope  had  gone.  The  good  old 
fellow  ran  like  a  quarter-horse,  and  when 
we  were  almost  at  the  main  ridge  crest 
I  leaped  off,  and  ran  ahead  with  my  rifle 
at  the  ready,  crouching  down  as  I  came 
to  the  sky-line?  Usually  on  such  oc- 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 

casions  I  find  that  the  antelope  have  gone 
on,  and  merely  catch  a  glimpse  of  them 
half  a  mile  distant,  but  on  this  occasion 
everything  went  right.  The  band  had 
just  reached  the  ridge  crest  about  two 
hundred  and  twenty  yards  from  me  across 
the  head  of  the  valley,  and  I  halted  for  a 
moment  to  look  around.  They  were  start- 
ing as  I  raised  my  rifle,  but  the  trajectory 
is  very  flat  with  these  small-bore  smoke- 
less-powder weapons,  and  taking  a  coarse 
front  sight  I  fired  at  a  young  buck  which 

stood  broadside  to  me.     There  was  no 

i 

smoke,  and  as  the  band  raced  away  I 
saw  him  sink  backward,  the  ball  having^ 
broken  his  hip. 

We  packed  him  bodily  behind  Sylvane* 
on  the  buckskin  and  continued  our 
as  there  was  no  fresh  meat  in  camp,  andj 
we  wished  to  bring  in  a  couple  of  bucks  if  | 
possible.     For  two  or  three  hours  we 
nothing.     The  unshod  feet  of  the  horses/ 
73 


Good  Hunting 

made  hardly  any  noise  on  the  stretches  of 
sun-cured  grass,  but  now  and  then  we 
passed  through  patches  of  thin  weeds, 
their  dry  stalks  rattling  curiously,  making 
a  sound  like  that  of  a  rattlesnake.  At 
last,  coming  over  a  gentle  rise  of  ground, 
we  spied  two  more  antelopes,  half  a  mile 
ahead  of  us  and  to  our  right. 

Again  there  seemed  small  chance  of 
bagging  our  quarry,  but  again  fortune 
favored  us.  I  at  once  cantered  Muley 
ahead,  not  towards  them,  so  as  to  pass 
them  well  on  one  side.  After  some  hes- 
itation they  started,  not  straightaway, 
but  at  an  angle  to  my  own  course.  For 
some  moments  I  kept  at  a  hand-gallop, 
until  they  got  thoroughly  settled  in  their 
line  of  flight ;  then  I  touched  Muley,  and 
he  went  as  hard  as  he  knew  how. 

Immediately  the  two  panic-stricken 
and  foolish  beasts  seemed  to  feel  that  I 
was  cutting  off  their  line  of  retreat,  and 
74 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 

4 

raced  forward  at  mad  speed.  They  went 
much  faster  than  I  did,  but  I  had  the 
shorter  course,  and  when  they  crossed 
me  they  were  not  fifty  yards  ahead — by 
which  time  I  had  come  nearly  a  mile. 
Muley  stopped  short,  like  the  trained  cow- 
pony  he  was ;  I  leaped  off,  and  held  well 
ahead  of  the  rearmost  and  largest  buck. 
At  the  crack  of  the  little  rifle  down  he 
went  with  his  neck  broken.  In  a  minute 
or  two  he  was  packed  behind  me  on 
Muley,  and  we  bent  our  steps  towards 
camp. 

During  the  remainder  of  my  trip  we 
were  never  out  of  fresh  meat,  for  I  shot 
three  other  bucks  —  one  after  a  smart 
chase  on  horseback,  and  the  other  two 
after  careful  stalks. 

The  game  being  both  scarce  and  shy, 

I  had  to  exercise  much  care,  and  after 

sighting  a  band  I  would  sometimes  hav« 

to  wait  and  crawl  round  for  two  or  three 

75 


Good  Hunting 

hours  before  they  would  get  into  a  posi- 
tion where  I  had  any  chance  of  ap- 
proaching. Even  then  they  were  more 
apt  to  see  me  and  go  off  than,  I  was  to 
get  near  them. 

Antelope  are  the  only  game  that  can 
be  hunted  as  well  at  noonday  as  in  the 
morning  or  evening,  for  their  times  for 
sleeping  and  feeding  are  irregular.  They 
never  seek  shelter  from  the  sun,  and  when 
they  lie  down  for  a  noonday  nap  they  are 
apt  to  choose  a  hollow,  so  as  to  be  out  of 
the  wind;  in  consequence,  if  the  band  is 
seen  at  all  at  this  time,  it  is  easier  to 
approach  them  than  when  they  are  up 
and  feeding. 

They  sometimes  come  down  to  water 
in  the  middle  of  the  day,  sometimes  in  the 
morning  or  evening.  On  this  trip  I  came 
across  bands  feeding  and  resting  at  almost 
every  time  of  the  day.  They  seemed 
usually  to  feed  for  a  couple  of  hours,  then 


A    WOUNDED    ANTELOPE 


Shooting  the  Prong-buck 

rest  for  a  couple  of  hours,  then  begin 
feeding  again. 

The  last  shot  I  got  was  when  I  was  out 
with  Joe  Ferris,  in  whose  company  I  had 
killed  my  first  buffalo,  just  thirteen  years 
before,  and  not  very  far  from  the  spot  I 
then  was  at.  We  had  seen  two  or  three 
bands  that  morning,  and  in  each  case, 
after  a  couple  of  hours  of  useless  effort, 
I  failed  to  get  near  enough.  At  last, 
towards  mid-day,  we  got  within  range  of 
a  small  band  lying  down  in  a  little  cup- 
shaped  hollow  in  the  middle  of  a  great  flat. 
I  did  not  have  a  close  shot,  for  they  were 
running  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
yards  off.  The  buck  was  rear-most,  and, 
at  him  I  aimed ;  the  bullet  struck  him  in, 
the  flank,  coming  out  of  the  opposite 
shoulder,  and  he  fell  in  his  next  bound. 
As  we  stood  over  him,  Joe  shook  his  head, 
and  said,  "I  guess  that  little  30-30  is  the* 
ace";  and  I  told  him  I  guessed  so  too. 
77 


A  Tame  White  Goat 


•»•»•  **' 


VI 


A  TAME   WHITE    GOAT 

NE  of  the  queerest  wild 
beasts  in  North  America 
is  the  so-called  white  goat. 
It  is  found  all  along  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  from  Alaska  into  Montana, 
Idaho,  and  Washington.  Really  it  is  not 
a  goat  at  all,  but  a  kind  of  mountain- 
antelope,  whose  nearest  kinsfolk  are  cer- 
tain Asiatic  antelopes  found  in  the  Him- 
alayas. It  is  a  squat,  powerfully  built, 
and  rather  clumsy-looking  animal,  about; 
as  heavy  as  a  good-sized  deer,  but  not 
tall.  It  is  pure  white  in  color,  exceptj 
81 


Good   Hunting 


that  its  hoofs,  horns,  and  muzzle  are  jet 
black.  In  winter  its  fleece  is  very  long, 
and  at  that  time  it  wears  a  long  beard, 
which  makes  it  look  still  more  like  a  goat. 
It  has  a  very  distinct  hump  on  the 
shoulders,  and  the  head  is  usually  carried 
low. 

White  goats  are  quite  as  queer  in  their 
habits  as  in  their  looks.  They  delight  in 
cold,  and,  except  in  the  northernmost 
portion  of  their  range,  they  keep  to  the 
very  tops  of  the  mountains ;  and  at  mid- 
day, if  the  sun  is  at  all  powerful,  retire  to 
caves  to  rest  themselves.  They  have  the 
very  curious  habit  of  sitting  up  on  their 
haunches,  in  the  attitude  of  a  dog  begging, 
when  looking  about  for  any  foe  whose 
presence  they  suspect.  They  are  won- 
derful climbers,  although  they  have  no 
liveliness  or  agility  of  movement;  their 
surefootedness  and  remarkable  strength 
enable  them  to  go  up  or  down  seemingly 
82 


A  Tame  White  Goat 


impossible  places.  Their  great  round 
hoofs,  with  sharp-cut  edges,  can  grip  the 
slightest  projection  in,  the  rocks,  and  no 
precipice  or  ice-wall  has  any  terror  for 
them.  At  times  they  come  quite  low  tow- 
ards the  foot-hills,  usually  to  visit  some 
mineral  lick,  but  generally  they  are  found 
only  in  the  very  high  broken  ground, 
among  stupendous  crags  and  precipices. 
They  are  self-confident,  rather  stupid 
beasts,  and  as  they  are  accustomed  to 
look  for  danger  only  from  below,  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  approach  them  if  once  the 
hunter  is  able  to  get  above  them ;  but  they 
live  in  such  inaccessible  places  that  their 
pursuit  entails  great  labor  and  hardship. 
Their  sharp  black  horns  are  eight  or  ten 
inches  long,  with  points  like  needles,  and 
their  necks  are  thick  and  muscular,  so 
that  they  are  dangerous  enemies  for  any 
foe  to  handle  at  close  quarters ;  and  they 
know  their  capacities  very  well,  and  are 


Good  Hunting 

confident  in  their  prowess,  often  prefer- 
ring to  stand  and  fight  a  dog  or  wolf 
rather  than  to  try  to  run.  Nevertheless, 
though  they  are  such  wicked  and  resolute 
fighters,  they  have  not  a  few  enemies. 
The  young  kids  are  frequently  carried  off 
by  eagles,  and  mountain-lions,  wolves, 
and  occasionally  even  wolverenes  prey  on 
the  grown  animals  whenever  they  venture 
down  out  of  their  inaccessible  resting- 
places  to  prowl  along  the  upper  edges  of 
the  timber  or  on  the  open  terraces  of  grass 
and  shrubby  mountain  plants.  If  a  goat 
is  on  its  guard,  and  can  get  its  back  to  a 
rock,  both  wolf  and  panther  will  fight 
shy  of  facing  the  thrust  of  the  dagger-like 
horns ;  but  the  beasts  of  prey  are  so  much 
more  agile  and  stealthy  that  if  they  can 
get  a  goat  in  the  open  or  take  it  by  sur- 
prise, they  can  readily  pull  it  down. 

I  have  several  times  shot  white  goats 
for  the  sake  of  the  trophies  afforded  by 
84 


A  Tame  White  Goat 


the  horns  and  skins,  but  I  have  never 
gone  after  them  much,  as  the  work  is 
very  severe,  and  the  flesh  usually  affords 
poor  eating,  being  musky,  as  there  is  a 
big  musk-pod  situated  between  the  ear 
and  the  horn.  Only  a  few  of  the  old- 
time  hunters  knew  anything  about  white 
goats;  and  even,  nowadays  there  are  not 
very  many  men  who  go  into  their  haunts 
as  a  steady  thing;  but  the  settlers  who 
live  high  up  in  the  mountains  do  come 
across  them  now  and  then,  and  they 
occasionally  have  odd  stories  to  relate 
about  them. 

One  was  told  to  me  by  an  old  fellow 
who  had  a  cabin  on  one  of  the  tributaries 
that  ran  into  Flathead  Lake.  He  had 
been  off  prospecting  for  gold  in  the  moun- 
tains  early  one  spring.  The  life  of  a 
prospector  is  very  hard.  He  goes  alone, 
and  in  these  northern  mountains  he 
cannot  take  with  him  the  donkey  which 
85 


Good   Hunting 


towards  the  south  is  his  almost  invaria- 
ble companion  and  beast  of  burden ;  the 
tangled  forests  of  the  northern  ranges 
make  it  necessary  for  him  to  trust  only 
to  his  own  power  as  a  pack-bearer,  and 
he  carries  merely  what  he  takes  on  his 
own  shoulders. 

The  old  fellow  in  question  had  been 
out  for  a  month  before  the  snow  was  all 
gone,  and  his  dog,  a  large  and  rather 
vicious  hound,  to  which  he  was  greatly 
attached,  accompanied  him.  When  his 
food  gave  out  he  was  working  his  way 
back  towards  Flathead  Lake,  and  struck 
a  stream,  on  which  he  found  an  old 
dug  -  out  canoe,  deserted  the  previous 
fall  by  some  other  prospector  or  pros- 
pectors. Into  this  he  got,  with  his 
traps  and  his  dog,  and  started  down- 
stream. 

On  the  morning  of  the  second  day, 
while  rounding  a  point  of  land,  he  sud- 

86 


A  Tame  White   Goat 


denly  came  upon  two  white  goats,  a  fe- 
male and  a  little  kid,  evidently  but  a  few 
weeks  old,  standing  right  by  the  stream. 
As  soon  as  they  saw  him  they  turned  and 
galloped  clumsily  off  towards  the  foot  of 
the  precipice.  As  he  was  in  need  of  meat, 
he  shoved  ashore  and  ran  after  the  fleeing 
animals  with  his  rifle,  while  the  dog  gal- 
loped in  front.  Just  before  reaching  the 
precipice  the  dog  overtook  the  goats. 
When  he  was  almost  up,  however,  the 
mother  goat  turned  suddenly  around, 
while  the  kid  stopped  short  behind  her, 
and  she  threatened  the  dog  with  lowered 
head.  After  a  second's  hesitation  the 
dog  once  more  resumed  his  gallop,  and 
flung  himself  full  on  the  quarry.  It  was 
a  fatal  move.  As  he  gave  his  last  leap, 
the  goat,  bending  her  head  down  side- 
ways, struck  viciously,  so  that  one  horn 
slipped  right  up  to  the  root  into  the  dog's 
chest.  The  blow  was  mortal,  and  the 
87 


Good  Hunting 

dog  barely  had  time  to  give  one  yelp  be- 
fore his  life  passed. 

It  was,  however,  several  seconds  before 
the  goat  could  disengage  its  head  from 
its  adversary,  and  by  that  time  the  en- 
raged hunter  was  close  at  hand,  and  with 
a  single  bullet  avenged  the  loss  of  his  dog. 
When  the  goat  fell,  however,  he  began  to 
feel  a  little  ashamed,  thinking  of  the 
gallant  fight  she  had  made  for  herself 
and  kid,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  harm  the 
latter.  So  he  walked  forward,  trying  to 
scare  it  away;  but  the  little  thing  stood 
obstinately  near  its  dead  mother,  and 
butted  angrily  at  him  as  he  came  up. 
It  was  far  too  young  to  hurt  him  in  any 
way,  and  he  was  bound  not  to  hurt  it, 
so  he  sat  down  beside  it  and  smoked  a 
pipe. 

When  he  got  up  it  seemed  to  have 
become  used  to  his  presence,  and  no 
longer  showed  any  hostility.  For  some 
88 


A  Tame  White  Goat 


seconds  he  debated  what  to  do,  fearing 
lest  it  might  die  if  left  alone ;  then,  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  probably 
old  enough  to  do  without  its  mother's 
milk,  and  would  have  at  least  a  chance 
for  its  life  if  left  to  itself.  Accordingly,  he 
walked  towards  the  boat;  but  he  soon 
found  it  was  following  him.  He  tried 
to  frighten  it  back,  but  it  belonged  to 
much  too  stout-hearted  a  race  to  yield 
to  pretence,  and  on  it  came  after  him. 
When  he  reached  the  boat,  after  some 
hesitation  he  put  the  little  thing  in  and 
started  down-stream.  At  first  the  motion 
of  the  boat  startled  it,  and  it  jumped 
right  out  into  the  water.  When  he  got 
it  back,  it  again  jumped  out,  on  to  a 
bowlder.  On  being  replaced  the  second  « 
time,  it  made  no  further  effort  to  escape ; 
but  it  puzzled  him  now  and  then  by  sud- 
denly standing  up  with  its  fore-feet  on 
the  very  rim  of  the  ticklish  dugout,  so 
89 


j*r^& 

i^.*Smi^ 


Good  Hunting 

that  he  had  to  be  very  careful  how  he 
balanced.  Finally,  however,  it  got  used 
to  the  motion  of  the  canoe,  and  it  was 
then  a  very  contented  and  amusing 
passenger. 

The  last  part  of  the  journey,  after  its 
owner  abandoned  the  canoe,  was  per- 
formed with  the  kid  slung  on  his  back. 
Of  course  it  again  at  first  objected  stren- 
uously to  this  new  mode  of  progress, 
but  in  time  it  became  quite  reconciled, 
and  accepted  the  situation  philosophi- 
cally. When  the  prospector  reached  his 
cabin  his  difficulties  were  at  an  end.  The 
little  goat  had  fallen  off  very  much  in 
flesh ;  for  though  it  would  browse  of  its 
own  accord  around  the  camp  at  night,  it 
was  evidently  too  young  to  take  to  the 
change  kindly. 

Before  reaching  the  cabin,  however, 
it  began  to  pick  up  again,  and  it  soon 
became  thoroughly  at  home  amid  its 
90 


A  Tame  White  Goat 


new  surroundings.  It  was  very  familiar, 
not  only  with  the  prospector,  but  with 
strangers,  and  evidently  regarded  the 
cabin  as  a  kind  of  safety  spot.  Though 
it  would  stray  off  into  the  surrounding 
woods,  it  never  ventured  farther  than 
two  or  three  hundred  yards,  and  after  an 
absence  of  half  an  hour  or  so  at  the 
longest,  it  would  grow  alarmed,  and  come 
back  at  full  speed,  bounding  along  like 
a  wild  buck  through  the  woods,  until  it 
reached  what  it  evidently  deemed  its 
haven  of  refuge. 

Its  favorite  abode  was  the  roof  of  the;;' 
cabin,  at  one  corner  of  which,  where  thev 
projecting  ends  of  the  logs  were  uneven, 
it  speedily  found  a  kind  of  ladder, 
which  it  would  climb  until  the  roof  w; 
reached.     Sometimes  it  would  promenad< 
along  the  ridge,  and  at  other  times  moun 
the    chimney,    which    it    would    hastil; 
abandon,  however,  when  a  fire  was  lit. 
91 


Good  Hunting 

The  presence  of  a  dog  always  resulted  in 
immediate  flight,  first  to  the  roof,  and 
then  to  the  chimney;  and  when  it  came 
inside  the  cabin  it  was  fond  of  jumping  on 
a  big  wooden  shelf  above  the  fireplace, 
which  served  as  a  mantel-piece. 

If  teased  it  was  decidedly  truculent; 
but  its  tameness  and  confidence,  and  the 
quickness  with  which  it  recognized  any 
friend,  made  it  a  great  favorite,  not  only 
with  the  prospector,  but  with  his  few 
neighbors.  However,  the  little  thing  did 
not  live  very  long.  Whether  it  was  the 
change  of  climate  or  something  wrong 
with  its  food,  when,  the  hot  weather  came 
on  it  pined  gradually  away,  and  one 
morning  it  was  found  dead,  lying  on  its 
beloved  roof-tree.  The  prospector  had 
grown  so  fond  of  it  that,  as  he  told  me, 
he  gave  it  a  burial  "just  as  if  it  were  a 
Christian. " 


Ranching 


VII 


RANCHING 

HERE  are  in  every  com- 
munity young  men  to 
whom  life  at  the  desk  or 
behind  the  counter  is  un- 
utterably dreary  and  un- 
attractive, and  who  long  for  some  out-of- 
door  occupation  which  shall,  if  possible, 
contain  a  spice  of  excitement.  These 
young  men  can  be  divided  into  two 
classes — first,  those  who,  if  they  get  a 
chance  to  try  the  life  for  which  they  long, 
will  speedily  betray  their  utter  inability 
to  lead  it;  and,  secondly,  those  who 
possess  the  physical  capacity  and  the 
95 


Good  Hunting 

peculiar  mental  make-up  necessary  for 
success  in  an  employment  far  out  of  the 
usual  paths  of  civilized  occupations.  A 
great  many  of  these  young  men  think  of 
ranching  as  a  business  which  they  might 
possibly  take  up,  and  what  I  am  about 
to  say 1  is  meant  as  much  for  a  warning 

t  to  one  class  as  for  advice  to  the  other. 

Ranching  is  a  rather  indefinite  term. 
In  a  good  many  parts  of  the  West  a  ranch 
simply  means  a  farm ;  but  I  shall  not  use 
it  in  this  sense,  since  the  advantages  and 
disadvantages  of  a  farmer's  life,  whether 
it  be  led  in  New  Jersey  or  Iowa,  have 
often  been  dwelt  upon  by  men  infinitely 
more  competent  than  I  am  to  pass  judg- 

;  ment.  Accordingly,  when  I  speak  of 
ranching  I  shall  mean  some  form  of  stock- 
raising  or  sheep-farming  as  practised  now 
in  the  wilder  parts  of  the  United  States, 

1  Written  in  1896. 


Ranching 

where  there  is  still  plenty  of  land  which, 
because  of  the  lack  of  rainfall,  is  not  very 
productive  for  agricultural  purposes. 

The  first  thing  to  be  remembered  by 
any  boy  or  young  man  who  wishes  to  go 
West  and  start  life  on  a  cattle  ranch, 
horse  ranch,  or  sheep  ranch  is  that  he 
must  know  the  business  thoroughly  before 
he  can  earn  any  salary  to  speak  of,  still 
less  start  out  on  his  own  accord.  A 
great  many  young  fellows  apparently 
think  that  a  cow-boy  is  born  and  not  made, 
and  that  in  order  to  become  one  all  they 
have  to  do  is  to  wish  very  hard  to  be  one. 
Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  young  fellow 
trained  as  a  book-keeper  would  take  quite 
as  long  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  cow-boy 
as  the  average  cow-boy  would  take 
learn  the  trade  of  book-keeper.  The  first 
thing  that  the  beginner  anywhere  in  the 
wilder  parts  of  the  West  has  to  learn  is 
the  capacity  to  stand  monotony,  fatigue, 
97 


Good  Hunting 

and  hardship;  the  next  thing  is  to  learn 
the  nature  of  the  country. 

A  young  fellow  from  the  East  who  has 
been  brought  up  on  a  farm,  or  who  has 
done  hard  manual  labor  as  a  machinist, 
need  not  go  through  a  novitiate  of  manual 
labor  in  order  to  get  accustomed  to  the 
roughness  that  such  labor  implies;  but 
a  boy  just  out  of  a  high-school,  or  a 
young  clerk,  will  have  to  go  through  just 
such  a  novitiate  before  he  will  be  able  to 
command  a  dollar's  pay.  Both  alike  will 
have  to  learn  the  nature  of  the  country, 
and  this  can  only  be  learned  by  actual 
experience  on  the  ground. 

Again,  the  beginner  must  remember 
that  though  there  is  occasional  excite- 
ment and  danger  in  a  ranchman's  life, 
it  is  only  occasional,  while  the  monotony 
of  hard  and  regular  toil  is  not  often 
broken.  Except  in  the  matter  of  fresh 
air  and  freedom  from  crowding,  a  small 
98 


Ranching 


ranchman  often  leads  a  life  of  as  grinding 
hardness  as  the  average  dweller  in  a  New 
York  tenement-house.  His  shelter  is  a 
small  log  hut,  or  possibly  a  dugout  in  the 
side  of  a  bank,  or  in  summer  a  shabby 
tent.  For  food  he  will  have  to  depend 
mainly  on  the  bread  of  his  own  baking, 
on  fried  fat  pork,  and  on  coffee  or  tea 
with  sugar  and  no  milk.  Of  course  he 
will  occasionally  have  some  canned  stuff 
or  potatoes.  The  furniture  of  the  hut  is 
of  the  roughest  description  —  a  roll  of 
blankets  for  bedding,  a  bucket,  a  tin 
wash-basin,  and  a  tin  mug,  with  perhaps 
a  cracked  looking-glass  four  inches  square. 
He  will  not  have  much  society  of  any 
kind,  and  the  society  he  does  have  is  not 
apt  to  be  over-refined.  If  he  is  a  lad  of  a 
delicate,  shrinking  nature  and  fastidious 
habits,  he  will  find  much  that  is  uncom- 
fortable, and  will  need  to  show  no  small 
amount  of  pluck  and  fortitude  if  he  is  to 
99 


..> 
v*-s. - 

<*$ 


/ 


Good   Hunting 


hold  his  own.  The  work,  too,  is  often 
hard  and  often  wearisome  from  mere 
sameness.  It  is  generally  done  on  horse- 
back even  on  a  sheep  ranch,  and  always 
on  a  cow  ranch.  The  beginner  must 
learn  to  ride  with  indifference  all  kinds  of 
rough  and  dangerous  horses  before  he 
will  be  worth  his  keep. 

With  all  this  before  him,  the  beginner 
will  speedily  find  out  that  life  on  a 
Western  ranch  is  very  far  from  being  a 
mere  holiday.  A  young  man  who  desires 
to  start  in  the  life  ought,  if  possible,  to 
have  with  him  a  little  money  —  just 
enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together — 
until  he  can  gain  a  foothold  somewhere. 

No  specific  directions  can  be  given  him 
as  to  where  to  start.  Wyoming,  most 
of  Montana,  the  western  edge  of  the 
Dakotas,  western  Texas,  and  some  por- 
tions of  the  Rocky  Mountain  States  still 
offer  chances  for  a  man  to  go  into  the 
100 


Ranching 

ranch  business.  In  different  seasons  in 
the  different  localities  business  may  be 
good  or  bad,  and  it  would  be  impossible 
to  tell  where  was  the  best  place  to  start. 
Wherever  the  beginner  goes,  he  ought 
to  make  up  his  mind  at  the  outset  to 
start  by  doing  any  kind  of  work  he  can. 
Let  him  chop  wood,  hoe,  do  any  chore 
that  will  bring  him  in  twenty-five  cents. 
If  he  is  once  able  to  start  by  showing  that 
he  is  willing  to  work  hard  and  do  some- 
thing, he  can  probably  get  employment  of 
some  kind,  although  this  employment  will 
almost  certainly  be  very  ill  paid  and  not 
attractive.  Perhaps  it  will  be  to  dig  in 
a  garden,  or  to  help  one  of  the  men  drive 
oxen,  or  to  do  the  heavy  work  around 
camp  for  some  party  of  cow-punchers  or 
lumberers.  Whatever  it  is,  let  the  boy 
go  at  it  with  all  his  might,  and  at  the 
same  time  take  every  opportunity  to  get* 
acquainted  with  the  kind  of  life  which  he 
101 


Good  Hunting 

intends  ultimately  to  lead.  If  he  wishes 
to  try  to  ride  a  horse,  he  will  have 
every  chance,  if  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  he  will  continually  meet  men  whose 
ideas  of  fun  are  met  by  the  spectacle  of  a 
tenderfoot  on  a  bucking  bronco. 

By  degrees  he  will  learn  a  good  deal  of 
the  ways  of  the  life  and  of  the  country. 
Then  he  must  snatch  the  first  chance  that 
goffers  itself  to  take  a  position  in  con- 
nection with  the  regular  work  of  a  ranch. 
^He  may  be  employed  as  a  regular  hand  to 
'help  cook  on  the  ranch  wagon,  or  taken 
by  a  shepherd  to  do  the  hard  and  dirty 
work  which  the  shepherd  would  like  to 
put  off  on  somebody  else.     When  he  has 
k  once  got  as  far  as  this  his  rise  is  certain, 
L  if  he  is  not  afraid  of  labor,  and  keeps  a 
| lookout  for  the  opportunities  that  offer. 
.After  a  while  he  will  have  a  horse  him- 
|  self,  and  he  will  be  employed  as  a  second- 
I  rate  man  to  do  the  ordinary  ranch  work. 


IO2 


Ranching 

Work  on  a  sheep  ranch  is  less  attrac- 
tive, but  more  profitable  than  on  any 
other.  A  good  deal  of  skill  must  be 
shown  by  the  shepherd  in  managing  his 
flock  and  in  handling  the  sheep  dogs; 
but  ordinarily  it  is  appallingly  dreary 
to  sit  all  day  long  in  the  sun,  or  loll  about 
in  the  saddle,  watching  the  flocks  of 
fleecy  idiots.  In  time  of  storm  he  must 
work  like  a  demon  and  know  exactly 
what  to  do,  or  his  whole  flock  will  die 
before  his  eyes,  sheep  being  as  tender  as 
horses  and  cattle  are  tough. 

With  the  work  of  a  cow  ranch  or  horse 
ranch    there    comes    more    excitement. 
Every  man  on  such  a  ranch  has  a  string 
of  eight  or  ten  horses  for  his  own  riding, 
and  there   is   a   great   deal   of   excitingj 
galloping  and  hot  riding  across  the  plains 
and  the  work  in  a  stampede  at  night,  o: 
in  line-riding  during  the  winter,   or  i: 
breaking  the  fierce  little  horses  to  th 

103 

.,*<•  <»*** 
^  ..***•• 

,  ••«" 

v*\  «•'/ 

•~*\\-' 


if\ 


Good  Hunting 

saddle,  is  as  exciting  as  it  is  hard  and 
dangerous. 

The  wilder  phases  of  the  life,  however, 
are  steadily  passing  away.  Almost  every- 
where great  wire  fences  are  being  put  up, 
and  no  small  part  of  the  cow-boy's  duty 
nowadays  is  to  ride  along  the  line  of  a 
fence  and  repair  it  wherever  broken. 
Moreover,  at  present  [1896]  the  business 
of  cattle  or  horse  raising  on  the  plains 
does  not  pay  well,  and,  except  in  pe- 
culiar cases,  can  hardly  be  recommend- 
ed to  a  boy  ambitious  for  his  future. 

So  much  for  the  unattractive  reality 
of  ranch  life.  It  would  be  unfair  not  to 
point  out  that  it  has  a  very  attractive 
side  also.  If  the  boy  is  fond  of  open-air 
exercise,  and  willing  to  risk  tumbles  that 
may  break  an  occasional  bone,  and  to 
endure  at  need  heat  and  cold,  hunger  and 
thirst,  he  will  find  much  that  is  pleasant 
in  the  early  mornings  on  the  great  plains, 


Ranching 

particularly  on  the  rare  days  when  he 
is  able  to  take  a  few  hours*  holiday  to 
go  with  his  shot-gun  after  prairie-chickens 
or  ducks,  or,  perchance,  to  ride  out  with 
a  Winchester  rifle  to  a  locality  where  on 
one  of  his  working  days  he  has  seen,  a 
small  band  of  antelope  standing  in  the 
open,  or  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  deer 
bounding  through  the  brush.  There  is 
little  temptation  to  spend  money,  unless 
he  is  addicted  to  the  coarsest  kind  of 
dissipation,  and  after  a  few  years  the 
young  fellow  ought  to  have  some  hun- 
dreds of  dollars  laid  aside.  By  this 
time  he  should  know  all  about  the 
business  and  the  locality,  and  should 
be  able  to  gauge  just  what  he  can  ac- 
complish. 

For  a  year  or  two  perhaps  he  can  try  to 

run  a  little  outfit  of  his  own  in  connection 

with  his  work  on  a  big  ranch.     Then  he 

will  abandon  the  latter  and  start  out  en- 

105 


Good   Hunting 

tirely  on  his  own  account.  Disaster  may 
overtake  him,  as  it  may  overtake  any 
business  man ;  but  if  he  wins  success,  even 
though  of  a  moderate  kind,  he  has  a 
pleasant  life  before  him,  riding  about  over 
the  prairie  among  his  own  horses  or  cat- 
tle or  sheep,  occasionally  taking  a  day 
off  to  go  after  game,  and,  while  working 
hard,  not  having  to  face  the  mere  drudg- 
jery  which  he  had  to  encounter  as  a 
tyro. 

The  chances  are  very  small  that  he  will 
ever  gain  great  wealth;   and  when  he 
marries  and  has  children  of  his  own  there 
are  many  uncomfortable  problems  to  face, 
the  chief  being  that  of  schools ;  but  for  a 
fc  young  man  in  good  health  and  of  advent- 
iurous  temper  the  life  is  certainly  pleas- 
banter  than  that  of  one  cooped  up  in  the 
^counting-room,  and  while  it  is  not  one  to 
|  be  sought  save  by  the  very  few  who  have 
I  a  natural  liking  for  it,  and  a  natural 
106 


Ranching 

capacity  to  enjoy  it  and  profit  by  it,  still 
for  these  few  people  it  remains  one  of 
the  most  attractive  forms  of  existence 
in  America. 


THE    END 


